Cadden Blackthorne/Legends
'''Cadden Blackthorne' (19 BBY) was born at the end of the Clone Wars, to Faarel and Trina Blackthorne. Since then, he has developed into a strong individual, and become quite the formidable warrior. Biography Cadden Blackthorne has always been a strong individual. Being only about thirty-five standard years of age, he has grown into a powerful man, a powerful Jedi, as well as the leader of the Mandalorian Protectors. Cadden is gifted with the heightened awareness to the Force, and the wake which others leave behind within it. This allows Cadden to be able to feel other people's presence from days gone by, and if the wake is "fresh" enough, and Cadden's connection to the person who formed it is strong enough, he can follow it in pursuit of the individual. Cadden has an ongoing struggle with the dark side of the Force. The Nomad Soul and the Dark Jedi Teslar Maladan both took interest in him, but both for their own separate reasons. During his entire life, Cadden has served as a mercenary and, most notably, a bounty hunter. In recent times, he has traveled to Mandalore, where he had acquired the trust of the Mandalorian people, and has become the new Mandalore. With his skills as a bounty hunter and warrior augmented by his abilities as a Jedi and a strong foundation in the Force, Cadden has constructed himself into a fierce warrior and spirited individual. The Galactic Civil War Death of a Family Cadden learned of his father's death at the age of sixteen, after being told to flee to safety away from Coronet (and thus traveled to Dantooine with his father's most trusted friend and Cadden’s personal trainer afterwards, Taren Casadar) and left for Corellia about an hour after the report was made. When he arrived, his fears were true... Faarel and Trina, his beloved and benevolent parents, were dead. Cadden was outraged, but that didn't stop him from investigating the matter. He had come to a conclusion that it was someone from within the Empire that had killed his parents. Unable to investigate further, Cadden returned to Dantooine. However, eventually the Empire caught on to where Cadden and Taren were hidden, and attacked Dantooine. Taren instructed Cadden to flee the planet, and reluctantly, he did so. And so began Cadden's career as a mercenary. While Cadden was getting used to his new life, he wound up working as hired muscle for several walks of life. Working on retainer for Jabba the Hutt, as well as other Hutt crimelords, Cadden gained enough notoriety in the Underworld to be trusted with most individuals. The more he accomplished, the more he made. Eventually, Cadden had his own small fortune. It was roughly 500,000 credits, but it was enough for Cadden to retire from the work of a mercenary for a while. He used what few ties he had to begin on the investigation of his parents' deaths, and traveled back to Corellia to search the Blackthorne Estate. He spent the next several weeks performing investigative work, discovering what he could about the perpetrators and the details of his family's fall. Soon, Cadden had learned that the Imperial Inquisitor was responsible, acting with orders directly from the Emperor himself. It was not enough for Cadden, and so he journeyed into the sublevel of the estate, searching for more clues to his parents' deaths. He was looking for those directly responsible, not for those he would never get a chance in finding, and taking his revenge on. It was in the sublevels of the estate that Cadden found a data disc. Believing it to be something that could lead him to those responsible for his misery, Cadden searched the data on the disc. He soon found information about the whereabouts of a suit of armor, which had belonged to one of his ancestors. Dawn of a Legend Cadden followed the trail, having to fight many fights over the next couple months, before he found himself on Dathomir, and the location of an old hut. Entering the former homestead, Cadden found a chest, sealed shut and air-tight. He spent the next couple days attempting to open the chest, until he finally was able to open it. Contained inside was a full suit of blood-red Mandalorian Armor. Cadden looked at the perfectly-preserved legendary piece of equipment with awe, all the while wondering how anyone of his family could have gotten their hands on such a thing. It was at that point Cadden was a free man. From that moment on, Cadden trained himself rigorously on several different worlds, taking on beasts of nature big and small alike. During this timeframe, Cadden had purchased a Firespray-class Patrol Ship, dubbing it the Pursuer based off of his pursuit for his Mandalorian armor. He used this ship as his personal transport, and each week he put a distinct modification to it. Like Boba Fett, Cadden had remained silent about the origins of his armor. He used the mysticism, and the perk that a similar Boba Fett was a notorious bounty hunter, to climb even higher in notoriety in the Underworld, until Cadden had become a very common household name. Not even the Empire was capable of touching him at this point, for the Blackthorne bounty hunter had become one of the most feared individuals in the fringes of space, next to Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Raptor, and other well-known bounty hunters. Cadden made certain to upkeep and upgrade his armor as often as he was able. He modified his armor to include a macrobinocular viewplate helmet, motion and sound sensors, infrared capabilities, an internal comlink with his ship, the Pursuer, and a broadband antenna for intercepting and decoding transmissions. Wrist gauntlets housed lasers, a miniature flame projector, and a fibercord whip/grappling device; a backpack jet pack included a turbo-projected magnetic grappling hook with twenty-meter lanyard. Cadden also carried a knee-pad rocket dart launcher, spiked boots, a concussion-gernade launcher, and a BlasTech EE-3 rifle. Even though his gizmos were that of Fett, Cadden's skills didn't quite equal the other hunter's, but he was confident that soon he would get the opportunity to rise to second best soon enough. Throughout his life, Cadden had worked as a warrior, a politician, mechanic, a trader, businessman, mercenary, soldier, personal guard, assassin, and, most frequently, as a bounty hunter - one of the most expensive bounty hunters in the known systems. He collected 150,000 credits for the capture of a notorious pirate, and took 500,000 credits when he caught the religious Twi'lek heretic Grok for the Hutts. The only hunter who had bested his work during his career as a hunter was the famed Boba Fett. .]] Cadden never took his helmet off, not for anybody or under any occasion. It was rumored that he was a grotesquely disfigured man, and was ashamed of seeing his own face. Another rumor had it that he did not wish to be reminded of his family, and the tragedy that remained in the memory of Corellia. The truth behind Cadden's behavior remained the same, however, in the fact that he used the armor to strike fear into others. He was quick and agile enough to hunt without it, but Cadden knew that anyone whom bore Mandalorian armor automatically gained the respect of others. Cadden returned to working for the Hutts, and got a hefty salary out of his occupation with them, and even started working for the Empire. He was always slow and methodical and as unpredictable as the shifting sands of Tatooine. He rarely lost his quarry, and had shown no remorse for their fate. Cadden was known to work with other bounty hunters, but his motives may have been to show the others up; Cadden had always emerged as the one who caught the prize. He had yet to actually test his skills against the famed Boba Fett and find out who was the better hunter. Chasing a Jedi At one point, Cadden had been on hire to intercept and eliminate Jedi Knight Cameo Naton, and was backed by a very large reward. Cadden had spent several weeks tracking Cameo and learning about the other. Opportunity struck when the Jedi was to meet with someone interested in becoming his apprentice on some backwater planet. Cadden had taken the opportunity to exterminate the future apprentice and take the ten thousand credit reward, and used that as his chance to ambush the unsuspecting Jedi Knight. Cameo took the bait, but he had escaped Cadden's grasp. The bounty hunter chased Cameo around for some time, never meeting with success, before he finally gave up the pursuit and accepted the ten thousand, instead of the heavier 900,000 offered on the Jedi Knight, and went on his way. Cadden and Cameo would eventually meet again, nearly fifteen years later. However, Cadden had finally found a chance to face off with the Imperial Inquisitor, Ansara Bansari, responsible for his parents' deaths. He dueled Ansara, and had emerged victorious with nothing more than a mere cut in the Inquisitor's right arm before she fled the scene. Several weeks later, Cadden had finally tracked down and eliminated the team he believed responsible for his parents' deaths, thus effectively removing an aged act of vengeance. Fall of a Hunter As his last jobs, Cadden had turned in the Imperial traitorous senator Ubio for 300,000 credits and a hyperdrive for the one partially responsible for his capture, Councelor Jobe. During the capture of the Bothan former senator, Cadden had run in to a Jedi Knight named Renalla Starrider. He did not know it at that point, but that woman was to be the sole person responsible for his leaving the bounty hunting trade. When Cadden returned from his deliverance of Ubio to Imperial authorities in order to give Jobe his hyperdrive, complications came along and Jobe left the ship to, unexpectedly, Jade. Later Cadden returned and successfully captured Dark Jedi Cazzik Wyn and turned him in to Karde for 1,500,000 credits. That was his last bounty, and Cadden assisted the Dark Jedi in escaping Karde's clutches for reasons unknown. It is unknown how long Cadden had planned to change, but when he did, the entire galaxy was in shock. The famous bounty hunter returned to a life of mystery, simply fading into the dark expanding abyss of space. It was here that he had met Trai Kanossi, whom was masquerading as his brother. Trai helped Cadden discover his potency in the Force, as well as bring him and Renalla together for their first, and last, adventure together. Over the course of time, Cadden had developed a perfection for hiding his presence in the Force. Much like how the Jedi Master Yoda had hid himself with the Dark Tree on Dagobah, but Cadden did not need any kind of mysterious, dark location to remain hidden. It was a trait that could only be perfected to this extent by few, and the Blackthornes were no exception. In order to keep his situation a secret, Cadden had placed an under-the-table order for an HRD, which would look exactly like him, to do his dirty work. For some time, the HRD succeeded in keeping the Empire away from Cadden. After the Battle of Endor Blackthorne Enterprises Later, Cadden finally resurfaced and re-established Blackthorne Enterprises in the Hoth System, a family corporation which operated out of the Udine system generations ago. The company had gotten off to a good start, and continued to see some promising times at the rate it was going, yet Cadden's old ways got the better of him again. The freedom fighter, and now Jedi-in-training, decided to send a kamikaze ship to Bilbringi, the center of the Empire. He was to pilot it, and collide a modified, custom frigate, packed to the max with highly dangerous and explosive missiles and other detonating projectiles into the planetoid, but one of his Elite Guard members, Trasj Ricknas, took it instead. Following the kamikaze attack, the Empire sent massive forces to the already-fleeing Blackthorne Enterprises forces, but they still outnumbered the company three to one. Because of an Interdictor field, Cadden's forces lost approximately 75% of its military forces and around 12% of its evacuees, a heavy loss for the company. Captain Irrad of the Red Star Alliance Star Frigate Benevolent gave the ultimate sacrifice, however, staying behind to delay the Empire. As soon as he knew that the company could escape, the Benevolent self-destructed, destroying all on-board, which seemed to include Cadden's personal ship, the Pursuer. After the Blackthorne Enterprises forces had retreated to Midpoint Station, they hypered out toward their next rendezvous point in a series of jumps to shake the Empire off of their tails. However, Cadden, along with Trai, Tamerah, Ryy'Suuk, and Renalla Starrider, all found themselves in an unknown sector of the Outer Rim to face their ultimate trial of their skills. Trial of a Warrior But while they were stuck on the ice world Talmohkt, Black one-eighteen, Cadden's Human Replica Droid, sacrificed himself to Ket Maliss in order to have the bounty lifted off of the real Cadden Blackthorne's head. His last move was sending out a message to an agent of Cadden's by the name of Kay'l Syao, a message that would have to be given to Ket Maliss prior to the agent's visit to Junrest, in order to get the apparent killer of Cadden Blackthorne a message from Cadden himself (prior to his departure from Midpoint). A week after being on the ice world, Cadden finally faced a great soul stealer named Ulfik Nevekron, who had a Dark Jedi Master inside his essence. After a heated duel, Cadden managed to get a jab through Ulfik's defenses with his lightsaber, killing the man almost instantly. While that was going on, a heated battle between Triad and Imperium forces was going on just outside the spaceport they were sent to destroy. Cadden got the detonators placed and had to manually detonate them, racing the explosion out on a hoverbike and barely escaping with his own life, while I'Flym valiantly saved Renalla's life by stopping a jab at her from an Imperium troop's batton. The troop was confronted by Renalla and Ryy'Suuk and taken away, and Renalla went down to the wounded Cadden. After saying their good-byes, the gang hypered away from the planet and to a secluded, independent system, where Cadden spent the next few weeks recovering from his wounds on the world of Thonner. However, when he had first awoken, he discovered Renalla had left, and perhaps would never know of the real reasons why. As soon as he was healed, he was cleared of all doubts. He could not remain hidden forever... but he did know that there was one thing he had yet to do. Unaware of what was stirring within his own essence, Cadden departed from the others in a personal fighter he had acquired, to seclusion once again. During this time, he had constructed his own, unique lightsaber. To Fall and Rise Back Up While in his time of seclusion, Cadden received a call for help from a familiar source - Talmohkt, the ice world in which Cadden and his friends had returned from but a standard year prior. Cadden accepted the stressed call for aid, and returned to the ice world, alone this time. However, the call was a trap - the Nomad Soul had returned in his full form, a grotesque alien by the name of Klatonn. Klatonn, the original Nomad Soul, had gathered enough strength to return from the netherworld, whereupon he goaded Cadden to the Dark Side by claiming to be the cause of the deaths of his entire family, including Renalla Starrider. Cadden, infuriated, charged the Nomad Soul, lightsaber in hand and blade extended, and brought the saber down on the ancient nemesis of his with all his might. However, Klatonn had a new apprentice with him - a man by the name of Carth Dyral. Carth blocked the blow, but Cadden simply kicked the younger man away in response, and cut Klatonn down. Letting his rage take over, Cadden released a destructive surge of energy on Klatonn, completely destroying the creature's body, and sending his spirit back into the abyss. But at a great cost. With that simple act, Cadden had engulfed himself in the Dark Side, and soon after the defeat of the Nomad Soul, Cadden arose to the creature's place. He led Talmohkt into a revolutionary stage, where the planet was to engage in modern technological advances of space, a movement that the people accepted well, but was masked with a true purpose - Cadden, with his newfound rage and dark powers, was intending on launching a frontal assault against the outskirts of the Outer Rim, in an attempt to raise a force to strike at the heart of the Empire. However, plans went awry, and Cadden found himself engaged in a fierce duel against Carth Dyral for the position of leader. At the end of the duel, though, both warriors ended in a draw, but both with a price to pay. Carth lost his vocal cords, and Cadden his right eye. Agreeing to continue the duel another time, the two decided to focus on getting off Talmohkt, first. However, when civil war erupted, the rebels led by Cadden's sister Tamerah and his long-time friend, Trai Kanossi, alongside Ryy'Suuk, Cadden's sister and two friends managed to convince him to abandon his efforts. After some struggle, Cadden launched into space, using the very single-crewed fighter he arrived on the world with, and destroyed a subspace portal that was to lead the people of Talmohkt to their new home. Staging his own death, Cadden used decisive timing and expert piloting to escape through the portal, as it collapsed upon itself. He emerged in the Outer Rim territories, and ultimately decided to head to the Hoth System, whereupon he crash-landed on the ice world. He barely survived the wreckage, due to the interference of a Zabrak named Zartok Ular. When Cadden awoke three days later, he found himself with an artificial eye, and a thanks to be found with a new ally. He spent the next two weeks in recovery and, with no way off Hoth, he dedicated a lot of that time to meditation and training. Cadden had realized the kind of monster he had become, back on Talmohkt, and saw his time on Hoth as a good one to remain separated from all those whom he cared about, in hopes that his seclusion could rid him of his taint. After the third week, Cadden received a visit from a man named Kladaar, an older ancestor of his from six generations prior, in his spirit form. Kladaar informed Cadden of a dark past that his family had shared, for quite some time, until they had come to the Jedi Order and a new generation of Blackthornes had been established. However, to keep Cadden from walking down the dark path, he refused to disclose any details. Instead, he warned Cadden of the dangers of the Dark Side, that once one walked down that path, it would forever dominate one's destiny, consume their will. And, for those that repented, they would be engulfed in a war with themselves, a war to purge the dark taint that would remain. Kladaar parted with these words: "A Jedi is free to follow the path he has chosen, but do not mistake the path of the Dark Side to be the strongest of the two. It is merely the easiest." It was only afterwards that Cadden had realized that the last he saw his ship, the Pursuer, it was in the Empire's raid of Blackthorne Enterprises two years prior. Taking a gamble, he called the ship on a personal wristpad, and but a couple hours later, his Firespray-class ship found its way to his location, and landed outside. Cadden then made long preparations to leave Hoth, once and for all, and even took Zartok and his medical droid with him after a week's worth of preparations. From there, Cadden re-surfaced, joining forces with Jhuston Vox in the apprehension of the notorious pirate Kaldone for Esran Croft. Zartok had lost his life in the hunt, but the others managed to pull off the bounty with little trouble. However, during the capture of Kaldone, Cadden had detonated the Pursuer, with his armor inside, in order to grant them the time needed to escape Kaldone's ship. Only weeks later had Talon Karde approached him with the gift of the Pursuer II, as a reward for Cadden helping him some time ago. Cadden once again went into seclusion, where he had discovered that Carth Dyral had escaped Talmohkt and, after repenting from the Dark Side himself, had fallen under the magics of a Sith Lord. Cadden faced off with Carth for the last time, aiding the old rival in purging the Sith from his mind, whereupon they parted on peaceful terms. Cadden then joined up with Ryy'Suuk and Jaylin Kumar, and held some minor adventures with the two for the next couple of years. Resurrection He has recently re-surfaced one last time, and re-established Blackthorne Enterprises, this time in its rightful place in the Udine system. The company progressed well, with Cadden collaborating with the Loris Empire to obtain independence from its debtors. Plans went awry, however, and with the help of Cadden's sons, Guan and Jerik, they managed to avoid a disasterous outcome. Cadden decided to leave the new Blackthorne Enterprises, and resold all its assets. Using the credits he got for that, as well as a healthy sum of credits from commission costs from selling older Blackthorne Enterprises designs to Esran Croft Enterprises, before his older incarnation of the company went belly-up, Cadden went into retirement. However, old habits die hard, and within a matter of a couple years Cadden was secretly scouring the galaxy in his Rogue-class Armed Transport, the Rogue Star. After hearing of the Xen'Chi and Gait threats, Cadden assembled together a crack team of combat and information specialists to deal with petty thugs, preparing them to combat the new threats on their own. The Mandalorian Protectors The Falleen named Xhander joined the Rogue Star's crew shortly after Cadden had a run-on with a deadly Dark Jedi by the name of Ilan Garuda, whom Cadden later discovered had been undergoing the Jedi Trials during the Clone Wars, and subsequently fell to the Dark Side during Darth Vader's raiding of the Jedi Temple. Cadden defeated Ilan Garuda twice over the course of three weeks. During those three weeks, he had met with a Jedi Master whom had been in exile since the Clone Wars began named Teslar Maladan. Teslar guided Cadden toward a new path, separate from that of his ragtag team of specialists. After Cadden had supposedly killed Garuda on Holoworld III, he decided to take Teslar's offer and leave the group for his own destiny. Little did he know it would lead him to the planet Mandalore. When Cadden arrived in the Mandalore system, his ship's hyperdrive had suffered a major malfunction, due to the tampering of the Pursuer II's computer systems, causing the ship to explode. Locke Rekkon and Gandon Belak, two surviving Mandalorians, found Cadden floating in space above their world, after receiving news about the explosion, and nursed them back to full health. Only three days later did Cadden become accepted as a true Mandalorian, despite his past being devoid of the Mandalorian lifestyle. Cadden vowed to lead the Mandalorians to their former glory, or die trying. During the quest to reunite the clans, Cadden had been chosen to become the new Mandalore, and he immediately began the process of combating for his position, and reuniting the clans. As soon as the clans were reunited, and the skirmishes between Cadden's Mandalorian Protectors and opposers of the new structure came to a closure, MandalMotors swore its fealty to Cadden, and the company became once again under Mandalorian control. With the fast-approaching threat of the Xen'Chi looming but on the horizon, there was little time to waste. Gandon Belak was charged with resurrecting the Mandalorian Warriors to fend off this and future galactic threats, whilst Locke Rekkon was tasked with the training of the fleet, alongside Admiral Ghrark Fyrebyrd, in orbit of Mandalore. The Xen'Chi Invasion (14 ABY—) Mandalore .]] Cadden and his Protectors did not enter the Xen'Chi War until its closing stages. After the ruinifications of the clans, Cadden had set his sights on rebuilding the Mandalorian strength that it had once had, so long ago. With thousands of shock troopers, and hundreds of supercommandos, he finally viewed his Protectors ready to fight by roughly 14 ABY. They would soon get that chance, when upon heading to the Corellia system, to receive a new ship, a VCX-820 Escort Freighter he later dubbed the Hellfire, Cadden intercepted a call for help from the most unlikely of sources. While in the Corellia system, Cadden visited his father and Cameo Naton, in order to tie up loose ends and square away old feelings that may have been harbored toward him. Then he set off with his son, Jerik, to the source of the distress call he had received but moments earlier, and rendezvoused with the long-thought-dead Cazzik Wyn. He was asked to help him begin his search for his missing sons, Caius and Xanic, leading them to the City of the Jedi. The group discovered the location of the City of the Jedi, and immediately set out to get there before Kamulos would. There, Guan, along with the Conqueror and her crew, met up with them and aided them and the Mandalorians in the defense of the planet from Kamulos's forces. Cadden's moment of glory, and show of his continuous dominating presence over many others, was shown when he successfully beat K471 in personal combat. After the battle was won, Cadden left his sons under Cazzik's care, and returned to Mandalore, to finalize preparations for the war against the Xen'Chi. During the Battle of Taylon, however, a second group of Mandalorians was tasked at traveling to Mechis III and attacking the Xen'Chi presence there. While greatly outnumbered and outgunned, the group did its job well, with the unexpected aid of Oremin operatives that had targeted the world for liberation as well. The Mandalorians, led by a Zabrak shock trooper named Nedth Dinsan, proved their worth to the tee, and combined with Oremin intelligence, gave Cadden a thorough report on Xen'Chi tactics. Operation: Dissection With this information, as well as the final preparations to the Mandalorian First Assault Fleet completed, Cadden set out a daring plan to strike back at the Xen'Chi and sever their invasion path which separated Mandalore from Coruscant itself. Nicknaming it Operation: Dissection, the order of attack was to strike at close-by systems, and purge them of Xen'Chi presence. The series of attacks began with an overwhelming victory at Woostri, and continued toward Aquaris. With their victory at Aquaris, the Mandalorians made an astonishing example of their growing strength, as they continue to press foward in their goal to stall the Xen'Chi invasion long enough for the galaxy to counter-attack. Now, the Mandalorians ferociously duke it out on Ploo, poising to strike next at Obroa-Skai and continue onward to Myrkyr. If done well, the tactic would cause the Xen'Chi to divert a fleet to Mandalore, where the planet would then be defended by the Protectors' full arsenal, and show the Xen'Chi just how unwelcome they are in this galaxy. Arsenal Though Cadden has seemed to adapt to his role as Mandalore, he has not forgotten his training. Though he will often carry, and liberally use, blasters or other crude methods of battle, Cadden is still focused on keeping with his lightsaber skills. And, though he will admittedly first use his more practical means of accomplishing a wartime task - with blasters and explosives - he would not hesitate to call upon his lightsaber skills if the situation is deemed necessary. Typically, this requires that Cadden start out with ranged weaponry in a battle, and shift to his lightsabers once he breaches the enemy's line. Also, due to his Jedi training and enhanced reliability of the Force, Cadden no longer carries with him a jetpack, an oddity amongst elite Mandalorians. Cadden's arsenal as of the beginning of the New Mandalorian Crusade is as follows: *2 Modified DC-15S Carbines **Faster, more accurate, slightly smaller than a stock-issue DC-15S *2 DH-23 blaster pistols *2 Lightsabers *1 MM9 mini concussion rocket *1 set of wrist-mounted cortosis weave blades Cadden's helmet includes the following features: *Macrobinocular capabilities in the visor *Neural, infra-red, technology, and thermal vision modes for his visor *Long-range radio (1,000 meters) for the purpose of picking up sounds *Audio recorder and playback features for his helmet Training in the Force Cadden's training in the Force was largely based off of self-discovery. Because of this, Cadden often squared off with the Dark Side in himself, once even embracing it. It was not until he learned of why these urges occurred, that he was able to further control them. Nevertheless, since he discovered his connection to the Force, Cadden has engaged in constant self-training, despite popular belief that this has lead him down the path of a Dark Jedi. Even though this was true, once, Cadden has since then taken great precautions to keep himself in check, as he now knows the full danger of the path he has chosen. Awareness and Early Training Cadden became aware of his potency to the Force through his false brother and later close friend, Trai Kanossi. During a personal mission on one of Cadden's many ships he owned in his lifetime, Trai learned of his connection to the Force through a medical scan. Though because Trai was not a relative to Cadden, it led Cadden to believe that he, too, was capable of wielding the powers of the Force. This proved to be true in his own medical scan, and thus began Cadden's journey. Later, Cadden met with Renalla Starrider, as he was already diving into the mysteries of the Force. Though the two eventually fell in love, she served as Cadden's mentor, showing him the Light Side and the dangers of the Dark Side. It was not much, as their time together was cut short after the fall of the Frozen Empire on Talmohkt, but it was enough for Cadden. Trai also departed Blackthorne, leaving him with the philosophy of the Grey. Developing Skills Lightsaber Combat Though Cadden embraces the Force as a whole, he has developed a personal preference to lightsaber combat. Capable of wielding two blades with deadly efficiency, Cadden typically only employs this tactic when he is outnumbered or outskilled. Nevertheless, he has achieved mastery of a combination of the various forms of lightsaber combat, utilizing each form he has studied into his own unique style. As such, one can see elements of, and similarities to, the following forms of traditional lightsaber combat: *Form I: Shii-Cho *Form II: Makashi *Form III: Soresu *Form IV: Ataru *Form V: Shien / Djem So *Form VII: Juyo / Vaapad *Sokan *Jar'Kai Though some may argue that this produced a more advanced variant of Form VI lightsaber combat, it should be noted that Cadden has never received any formal training in these methods, and only picked up what he knew to create this type of combat. It should also be noted that these similarities are mostly coincidental, as Cadden's self-training in lightsaber combat has derived mostly of his own techniques. However, having understood the basic, rudimentary, concepts of each of these classical forms through his readings and studies, he has been successfully able to mimick them to varying degrees. He only uses this knowledge to expand on his own technique, however, which disclassifies him as a user, much less a master, of any of the above forms. This makes Cadden a highly unpredictable foe in lightsaber combat, having learned a little from all lightsaber combat forms. He first began practicing this skill when he, for a short time, wielded a Lightwhip, of which he had managed to acquire during his travels. Because it worked so well with the flexibility of the whip in combat, Cadden grew accustomed to using it, even after the unique device's loss and replacement of a new lightsaber. This transition over was quite a bit easier than Cadden predicted, and because of this previous experience, Cadden has maintained fluid motion while mastering this technique. Currently, and likely indefinately, Cadden is the sole user of this unique technique, as it is difficult for others with more solid foundations in lightsaber combat to master. This is due to the primary factor of this version of combat, which relies on wild, raw, untamed strength and skill, as well as a strong connection to events around oneself in order to respond to situations efficiently. Because of this, it would be virtually impossible for any Jedi already trained in any form of combat to use this form, and would require them to unlearn what they have already learned of lightsaber combat. One may as well continue to use what they already know. Force Powers Most of Cadden's Force powers are a means of aiding him in battle. However, he also uses common rudimentary and fundamental Force abilities, and has a strong ability to communicate through the Force. Though others may be able to possess this feat, Cadden may do so much easier than most are capable of. Cadden is also capable, though not in his own will, to form bonds in the Force. This allows him to sense wakes in the Force, where others could not. He typically employs this technique when seeking out Force-sensitive individuals, and has done so on two occasions - to find the Jedi at Corellia, and to find and aid Cazzik Wyn in finding his sons. Cadden is also prone to receive visions in the Force and, at certain times, even seek out these visions. However, if he receives a vision during his waking hours, it can be very draining, both physically and mentally. Aside from these particular powers, Cadden holds an array of command over the Force, primarily for combat-enhancement actions such as Battle Precognition and Force Valor. However, he is known to use Saber throw, Force Push (and its variants), Force Grip and Force Healing. Also, he has the capability to use darker powers such as a much lesser version of Force Destruction, and also sometimes employs Force Rage during his duels. Though not the extent of his abilities in the Force, they will be found typically employed if necessary. Potential Though he has come a long way since he first began his training, Cadden still holds a lot more potential. He has seen many battles, and often uncovers more of his potential through each, as he continues to grow in the Force. Even now, Cadden still possesses strong raw power in the Force, and he continues to learn what the extent of his abilities truly are. Oftentimes, he even surprises himself with what he can accomplish through the Force. One such even was while on Falleen, Cadden was able to hide the Pursuer II, while rested in its concealed docking bay on the Rogue Star, from two Falleen customs officers. Conflict of Interests Cadden is engaged in an inner struggle. He can be found to wield his lightsabers and use the Force at one moment, yet at the next he could be talking of shunning the entire idea of such behaviors. Having been this way since he arrived on Mandalore, Cadden will soon find himself facing a tough decision - deny the Force and take up his blasters alongside his Mandalorians, or leave Mandalore and return to the Jedi Order. Active Threads *The Xen'Chi Invasion: Dissection *Guardians of the Force: Introductions *The Mandalorian Protectors Category:Featured ArticleCategory:CharactersCategory:Mandalorian Protectors